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Spotlight: Unlocking ESG - the strategic advantage for insurance providers in the SME market

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As insurers confront new forms of volatility, from climate risk to cyber threats and geopolitical instability, the need to evolve beyond traditional rating models has never been greater. ESG offers a lens to better understand business resilience, and yet its potential remains largely undervalued and untapped.

Despite rising awareness around derived business benefits from ESG principles, findings from a new joint survey of SME insurance providers, carried out by Insurance Post in conjunction with CRIF, suggest the industry views ESG more as a long-term aspiration for data integration, rather than an immediate operational priority.

In a rapidly shifting risk environment this cautious stance amounts to a missed strategic opportunity as insurance providers risk underusing ESG in SME underwriting.

This spotlight highlights how integrating ESG data can enable SME insurers to boost resilience insights, improve risk modelling, and achieve a competitive market advantage.

Topics covered include:
• Risk factors used to evaluate the resilience of UK SMEs.
• Why financial resilience is front of mind yet decoupled from ESG.
• Why SME supply chains represent a hidden weak spot in risk assessment.
• Barriers to ESG integration.
• Incentivising SME ESG performance.
• Helping SMEs place greater emphasis on business resilience.

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